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  • bach
    bach
    noun
  • Bach
    Bach
    noun
    Johann Sebastian 1685–1750, German organist and composer.

bach

1 American  
[bach] / bætʃ /

noun

  • baches
    plural
  1. a bachelor.

  2. New Zealand. a small weekend or vacation house or shack.


idioms

  1. bach it, to live alone or share living quarters with someone of the same gender, usually doing one's own housework, cooking, laundry, etc.

Bach 2 American  
[bahkh] / bɑx /

noun

  1. Johann Sebastian 1685–1750, German organist and composer.

  2. his sons: Carl Philipp Emanuel 1714–88; Johann Christian 1735–82; Johann Christoph Friedrich 1732–95; and Wilhelm Friedemann 1710–84, German organists and composers.


Bach 1 British  
/ bax /

noun

  1. Johann Christian (joˈhan ˈkrɪstjan), 11th son of J. S. Bach. 1735–82, German composer, called the English Bach , resident in London from 1762

  2. Johann Christoph (ˈkrɪstɔf). 1642–1703, German composer: wrote oratorios, cantatas, and motets, some of which were falsely attributed to J. S. Bach, of whom he was a distant relative

  3. Johann Sebastian (joˈhan zeˈbastjan). 1685–1750, German composer: church organist at Arnstadt (1703–07) and Mühlhausen (1707–08); court organist at Weimar (1708–17); musical director for Prince Leopold of Köthen (1717–28); musical director for the city of Leipzig (1728–50). His output was enormous and displays great vigour and invention within the northern European polyphonic tradition. His works include nearly 200 cantatas and oratorios, settings of the Passion according to St John (1723) and St Matthew (1729), the six Brandenburg Concertos (1720–21), the 48 preludes and fugues of the Well-tempered Clavier (completed 1744), and the Mass in B Minor (1733–38)

  4. Karl ( or Carl ) Philipp Emanuel (karl ˈfiːlɪp eˈmaːnuɛl), 3rd son of J. S. Bach. 1714–88, German composer, chiefly of symphonies, keyboard sonatas, and church music

  5. Wilhelm Friedemann (ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfriːdəman), eldest son of J. S. Bach. 1710–84, German composer: wrote nine symphonies and much keyboard and religious music

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

bach 2 British  
/ bætʃ /

verb

  1. a variant spelling of batch 1

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a simple cottage, esp at the seaside

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
bach 3 British  
/ bax, bɑːk /

noun

  1. a term of friendly address: used esp after a person's name

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of bach

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55; by shortening


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

I hear the voices singing, speed your journey, bois, bois bach.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2022

Alan Stein bach New York City When you ponder "What to Do About Israel," you miss a key point.

From Time Magazine Archive

“This above all, be true to yourself, and then you cannot be false to any man,” he cried to Laertes’ departing bach.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

And behold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled bach the stone from the door and sat upon it.

From Biblical Extracts Or, The Holy Scriptures Analyzed; Showing its Contradictions, Absurdities, and Immoralities by Robert Cooper

"Father bach," Aben cried, "not right that you leave more to me than Dan."

From My Neighbors Stories of the Welsh People by Caradoc Evans

When the meeting took place, Bach was a frustrated teacher and choir leader in Leipzig.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

Bach, the analyst, says such alleged arms transfers are “increasing the risk of an escalating multistate conflict that could destabilize the Horn of Africa.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

“Conflict in Tigray has a strong potential to spread regionally,” said Edward Bach, senior Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a U.K.-based risk intelligence firm.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

Bach said one simple way to do that is to use your phone to record a video as you walk through each room, narrating as you go.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

The great change in attitude of which Voltaire was a supreme philosophical weathervane coincided with a rapid reshaping of music after the deaths of Bach and Handel.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Popular in Whangaroa Harbour and other locations away from cities and main tourist areas are cottages known as "baches."

From US News ● Nov. 10, 2015

They say he baches it there, cookin' his meals on a one-burner oil stove, never reportin'170 sick, never takin' a vacation, and never gettin' above Thirty-third Street or below Fourteenth.

From Torchy and Vee by Sewell Ford

She developed a sturdy self-reliance that was surprising in one so young, and long before spring came was indispensable to the two "old baches."

From A Little Norsk; Or, Ol' Pap's Flaxen by Hamlin Garland

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